Anaheim keeps hustling. Mayor Curt Pringle says the housing market crash hasn’t stopped homes from going up in the Platinum Triangle near Angel Stadium: Sure, the pace has slowed and now they’re apartments instead of condos, but when the market improves maybe they’ll be converted back. The public utilities department is putting $1 million into the Anaheim Center for New Energy Technologies, a partnership with Cal State Fullerton; Anaheim is negotiating for space on the old Boeing site and evaluating other locations in the Canyon Business Center (where a new Kaiser Hospital is also going). Disney and allies including Pringle prevailed in the recent Resort District zoning battle, protecting the tourism cash cow from City Council meddling. The resort is humming: California Adventure is undergoing a billion-dollar makeover and GardenWalk is going up, with 440,000 square feet of shops and entertainment, and 1,300 hotel rooms and timeshares; several restaurants, including Cheesecake Factory, P.F. Chang’s and Roy’s, are already open. Asked to compare being a lawmaker with being a mayor, former state Assembly Speaker Pringle says, “I like being in an office where you can get things done” …
Hard to believe he’d step away from public service, but Pringle says he won’t run for another office when he is term-limited out in 2010. Nor does he sound interested in an appointment. Maybe he’s serious about immersing himself in the private sector, where he already operates a seven-person public and government relations firm …
Pringle will be honored by his and wife Lexi’s favorite nonprofit, the Boys & Girls Club of Anaheim, at an April 19 gala at the Grand Californian. Call (714) 939-9070 …
Great encounter: OC exercise industry legend Augie Nieto meets famed British physicist Stephen Hawking Thursday at Cal Tech. Both men are pushing the boundaries of technology as they cope with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease). Hawking uses a voice program called NeoSpeech that Nieto wants to offer through a company he is setting up,Speak up ALS will provide communication tools to ALS victims regardless of their ability to pay. “The software that I am using to write this e-mail with my foot is available to anyone. No one knows about it. I can type 55 words a minute,” Nieto messaged from his boat off Puerto Vallarta, where he was vacationing with his family. Meanwhile, Augie’s Quest has passed the $14 million mark in funds raised for ALS research. Nieto is working on a second book, too, featuring interviews with Starbucks’ Howard Schultz, Intuit founder Scott Cook, Lakers great Magic Johnson and other VIPs. And John “Five for Fighting” Ondrasik has a song about Augie on his next album …
What better place for the politically androgynous Gov. Arnold to hold his Thursday fundraiser than El Adobe restaurant in San Juan Capistrano, owned by uber-Democrat Richard J. O’Neill and the former haunt of Republican Richard Nixon?
